The internet has become a powerful information delivery tool in which a host of useful information is accessible in various services. However, the efficiency of Internet also enables some adverse abuse such as so-called spamming in which various unsolicited messages are sent to millions of recipients. Spamming is particularly undesirable because it floods email inboxes, exposes recipients to computer virus and worm attacks and hinders normal communications as desired messages may be accidentally removed or discarded among spam messages. Often spamming is performed by using hijacked computers so each of which may send thousands of unsolicited messages using a list of public email addresses and/or using a private address book stored.
There are naturally numerous ways to counter spamming, including client based spam filters which try to detect spam messages based on some heuristic analysis and mail server based spam filters which may be configured to identify suspicious messages spreading in a spam like manner. In order to enhance the reliability of detecting unsolicited messages, the operators may establish and suitably publish in the internet email addresses for the purpose of attracting and detecting spam messages. Such traps should only receive unsolicited messages, since they are not provided to anyone for any real solicited messaging. Matching messages sent to other subscribers of an email service provider should also be unsolicited messages and thus safely removable. With the email, this is an efficient technique with little if any downsides.
While spam is considered a nuisance in the computer world, when targeted at mobile telephones, it is perceived as an even greater intrusion because consumers perceive their handsets as more personal devices than their PCs. For a time, the cost and technology of SMS and MMS messaging represented a barrier to mobile spam but the emergence of mobile Spoof and Fake techniques enabled spammers to disguise the source of their attacks and avoid being billed. In addition to the nuisance value, because there is a monitory cost associated with each mobile message (that rarely applies to email), such spam threatens the revenue streams of mobile operators. Various applications have been developed to detect and remove messages that use Spoof and Fake techniques. However, a certain proportion of spam messages can only be detected by examining their content, for example messages Spoofed through another mobile network's SMSC. The trend towards technical convergence between mobile telephones and computers has increased the risk of mobile phones being infected with worm viruses that turn them into spam originators. In such cases, the cost of messaging would be borne by the owner of the mobile network subscription and thus individuals may face significant phone bills for messages they did not originate.
Hence, there is a need to address spam messaging in mobile communications networks.